Royal Orders: The Honours and the Honoured

by Hugo Vickers

Examining the history of the great Royal orders and those who have received them, this book incorporates anecdotes, stories and photographs. It focuses on each of the orders in turn, the ceremony, and how different monarchs have dealt with the orders - including Queen Elizabeth II, who has been less than generous in distributing honours to her family, who have been made them earn them. The book also discusses the reasons why certain dignitaries have been honoured and other conspicuously ignored. The author has written biographies of Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh, and Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 1994

About the author

Hugo Vickers is a writer and broadcaster, who has written biographies of many twentieth century figures, including the Queen Mother, Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh, a study of Greta Garbo, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, and his book, The Private World of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor was illustrated with pictures from their own collection. Mr Vickers’s book, The Kiss: The Story of an Obsession won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction.

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one sense, a history of English royal decorations and chivalric orders has zero connection to the experience of American readers. These aren’t granted in recognition of military courage or (usually) accomplishment in civilian life, but simply because the recipient was born to the upper classes. The Order of the Garter is about as about as far from democracy as you can get. On the other hand, because the Garter has been around since Edward III established the club in 1348, it has become the most respected and most cherished award that may be made, not only to British citizens but to foreign rulers -- even the emperor of Japan. Vickers has been hanging around the subject since attending his first Garter ceremony at the age of thirteen (as you tells you several times), and has become perhaps the leading nonprofessional authority on orders of knighthood. Edward VII fought several times with his government over the granting of the Garter, though he distributed lesser decorations almost like lunch tips. Some peers have had no interest in or time to spend worrying about such things, while others (notably Earl Mountbatten) “collected orders the way other people collect stamps.” As Vickers notes, the present monarch has been notably stingy with honours to her own relatives, which probably is not a bad thing.